If you're cheap like me, get some pelican cases. Pretty sure I have givi sidebag bars on my bike, but they've got Pelican's drilled into them. Doesn't make for a quick release, but they're narrow, and very sturdy. I've been down on them, and not a single crack, just a little scuff on the plastic. Previous Owner of my bike seems to have been down once or twice before as well, and the bags are still doing just fine.

I am thinking of changing out my Givi panniers for sturdier ones. Checking to see if any DL 650 owners want to buy the Givi's and for recommendations on replacements.

Got 45k on my Happy Trails boxes and zero complaints. However, when I got mine they weren't as expensive as they are now. Currently, the price is similar between Jesse's and Happy-Trails, and the Jesse's are awfully nice.

For the same price I'd go with Jessies, however I have Happy Trails on 2 bikes, and my brother has them on his 650 V-Strom. We're both pretty happy with their products.

Oldgranolahead

03-07-2014 01:22 PM

Thanks for the recommendations. For those of you who have Happy Trails, how do they hold up in low speed drops?

Scott_PDX

03-07-2014 01:28 PM

Not bad, there is no fancy quick release mounting hardware to F#@& the geometry up on. Unless you cound 2 bolts as fancy. Boxes themselves are as robust as most any other aluminium box. Hit it just right and you'll you'll get damage. The angled bottom helps vs. crushing a sharp edge like some others. Mine's only had simple tip-overs though. Add some speed and or obstacles for them to crumple into and it could be a different story. If you expect to be crashing a lot, you might consider soft panniers. The Wolfman Rocky Mountain/Expedition panniers will fit on the same Happy Trail rack down the road if you want to have both. Just keep you feet on the pegs if you do go down, it sucks getting yer foot caught under metal panniers.